He'd like nothing more than to pass Elliott, but that's probably going to take three consecutive victories. Instead, he wants to focus on the final 10 races that comprise the playoffs.

"We can't make drastic changes to what we have been doing to try and make up those points," said Chastain. "We come to the track prepared each weekend and if we score more wins and points than the No. 9 and pass them, that's great. We're focused on the big picture and the end of season championship."

Chastain and the No. 1 Moose Fraternity team return to Richmond (Va.) Raceway after a 19th-place finish at the Virginia short track in April. While the result doesn't show it, Chastain ran in the top-three during the event before handling issues hindered the No. 1 Chevrolet in the final stage.

"In the final stage at Richmond during the last race, we went from second or third to 19th and it was a brutal last run," said Chastain. "So we’ve really looked at that and why that happened. We started working on Richmond stuff last week already and comparing it to what we had in the Spring and preparing to be better. We really need to turn better for this weekend’s race. We just got too tight last time." 

Chastain has one win this season in the Moose Fraternity livery - Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway on April 24. The thrilling finish was Chastain's second career Cup Series victory.

Before hitting the track this weekend, Chastain will visit Moose Lodge No. 699 in Richmond on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. local time. The appearance is open to the public.

Chastain has seven Cup Series starts at Richmond with a best finish of seventh and four laps led.

USA Network will broadcast Sunday's Cup race at 3 p.m. ET.

Ross Chastain, Driver of the No. 1 Moose Fraternity Chevrolet

There was a lot of fall off at the Richmond race earlier this year. The way it played out and with all of the different strategies, were you surprised with how that race played out?

"I wasn't really surprised. From what I’ve seen since I’ve been around Richmond is that it has been a high fall off track. In the Xfinity Series, my spotter Lorin Rainer in 2016, he told me going into the weekend that if I would just listen to him, that I would run good. We had an 80 lap run to the finish and with 20 to go we went from 20th to seventh in Johnny Davis’ car. It was because we saved our rear tires. It’s the same thing this year, I burned off my front tires because we had such short runs in the spring for most of the race, and then all of the sudden we had a long run at the end and I wasn’t prepared as a driver for that. I put my front tires past the limit and made speed early but it really cost me when there was a really long run at the end."

Are you excited for Project 91 next weekend at Watkins Glen?

"I am. Having a guy like Kimi Raikkonen who is world class talent is cool. It’s just a snapshot of what Justin Marks wants to do in motorsports.

"That is why he wanted it to be branded different. When another team in the past brought a third car, it was just an extension of your fulltime cars. But this gets to be its own brand and its own thing. It’s a landing place for any driver from across the world that wants to come and drive at Trackhouse. He wants to branch out and bring in people from all over for the opportunity to drive in NASCAR.”